Wednesday, June 11, 2008

It’s Sunday morning and it hasn’t rained YET!! It’s cloudy but every once in a while a bit of sun struggles forth! I managed to get my laundry dried yesterday and that’s an accomplishment during the rainy season!

We’ve recouped some from the passing of “Alma”, which was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm! It was ‘demoted’ because the winds didn’t quite make it to the criteria designed for a hurricane. However, that had nothing to do with the amount of water that descended!

I’m getting used to the ‘winter’ here and keep my umbrella, rain poncho and rain hats at the ready. They travel with me wherever I go! Alma left thousands of folks without homes, or at least roofs. The amount of mud (clay) that is generated with these rains is incredible. A whole crew of people starts digging up the mud after each heavy downpour, trying to keep ahead of the dark brown sticky stuff.

Last Friday we went to one of the farm communities in the hills. When we left, the day was fair and lovely. By the time we’d had dinner and were half way through our meeting, it began to POUR. The small house was very soon surrounded by water which was moving at a rapid rate. Well, it came time to see if we could manage to return with our empty food containers and MANY people in the pickup truck. There were six of us inside the truck and at least nine in the bed of the truck getting soaked to the skin. The water was running at such a fast rate that one wasn’t sure what would happen. I will try to include photos of the raging “new rivers”.

Claudio, my fellow team member, is used to this but it’s always a challenge. He safely guided us through ditches, fast flowing water with uncertain depths and over rocks. I prayed; he drove!! I wasn’t scared, but I know the danger of vehicles moving parallel to fast flowing water. We arrived drenched and muddy but safe and sound!

Everything is GREEN and seeds have been planted with hope for a prosperous harvest – rice, beans, corn, vegetables – everything is coming up quickly.